Marketing Strategy In US General Election

Choose a simple and unique concept, keep repeating the word, lock it up with the word, and occupy the word in the consumer's mind. This is the enterprise.

In June 2, 2008, in the speech at Beijing Railway Station, the first leg of our 2008 China trip, I analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of several US presidential candidates from the perspective of marketing strategy, and predicted Barack.

A marketing battle

In November 5, 2008, Barak Obama was elected president of the United States. He received a total of 53% votes, while his opponent Mccain had a 47% approval rating.

The presidential campaign can be seen as a marketing battle. Any company in the world can learn something from Obama's campaign. The right thing for presidential election is also effective for brands.

In the long run, there is usually no single brand with a market share of more than 50% in a fully competitive market. In other words, second brands always have a foothold, especially when the brand can deliberately become the "opposite side" of the leading brand.

This is what we call "the law of opposites" in the 22 commercial rules.

Choose a word

The presidential election of the United States is divided into several steps.

The first step is that the candidate must be supported by enough delegates at the party's domestic meetings.

As a representative of the Democratic Party, Obama must win more support than his main competitor, Hilllary Clinton.

Hilllary Clinton has benefited from the marriage with her husband, Bill Clinton, one of the most successful politicians in the United States, and has become the most famous woman in the United States.

Let's take a look at his second rival John McCain. This is a very famous war hero and a veteran American senator with remarkable achievements.

Obama seems to be full of inferiority, not a natural "quality product": he has been obscurant before, any younger than any opponent, and is a black man, and most Americans feel the "weird" name.

Marketing competition is a cognitive struggle rather than a product competition, so these are not important, because Barack Obama's marketing strategy is better than that of Hilllary Clinton and John McCain.

What is Obama's strategy? Just one word: "change".

Every speech, every news conference, every time we meet with supporters, there must be such a most striking sign on the platform which Obama is talking about: the change we can trust.

At every speech, Obama's aides will distribute leaflets to the audience with the same message: the change we can trust.

Joseph Goebbels, the German propaganda minister during World War II, was a "big lie" expert. Goebbels said, "a lie repeats itself one thousand times to become a truth."

The opposite of this strategy is the "big truth". If you keep repeating, the truth will become more and more magnified and produce the aura of legality and authenticity.

Occupy a word

Over the years, we have been emphasizing that the key to successful marketing strategy is to occupy a word.

What does Hilary have? She first tried "experience", which was somewhat in line with her personal advantages; but when she saw Obama's progress, she immediately changed to "countdown to change", apparently an imitator, and even worse, when critics criticized her plagiarism, she became "the way out for the United States".

Under so many information, potential supporters can no longer find a concept that can be linked to Hilary.

"Change" is not a bright and creative concept, but many studies show that 70% of the American public thinks that the country is going astray.

If Hilary first stood on the "change" and concentrated all forces on this single concept, the United States would probably have the first female president.

Let's talk about John McCain. In fact, Mccain does have a slogan, "the first country in the world", but it's too late in the election, and this slogan is not much related to the public voters.

Technically, both Hilary and Mccain spend their energies communicating this message: "I can bring you more excellent changes than any opponent".

"Better" has never worked in marketing, and the only thing that plays a role in marketing is "uniqueness".

When you are different, you can first occupy the minds of consumers, while opponents can not shake your position.

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Repeat a word.

Over the past decades, with the intensification of competition, marketing concept has been completely overturned.

In the past, the purpose of marketing propaganda is to make the brand more well-known. People who hold this view believe that consumers will buy their well-known brand rather than a brand with no reputation at all.

Today, it has been proven that fame alone is far from successful.

The most famous brands in the United States are the three leading brands in the automotive industry: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. They own Chevrolet, Cadillac, Ford, Chrysler and Jeep brands.

These brands (and their companies) are extremely well known, but these three companies are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Why? Because these brands do not mean anything.

Just being famous is meaningless. If a brand wants to achieve real success, it needs to occupy a word in the consumer's mind, similar to the word "change".

What does "driving machine" bring for BMW? This is the best selling luxury car in the world. Will there be other cars that are more fun than BMW? This is not important. BMW has already possessed the word "driving machine" in the minds of customers.

The reality is regrettable. Until now, only a few brands have had the vocabulary in the minds of their customers. The majority of the brands with vocabulary have not publicized these words: Mercedes Benz has "prestige", but it is not used in slogans. TOYOTA has "reliability" and is not used in slogans; Coca-Cola has "authentic goods" and does not need it.

Pepsi mistakes

Many years ago, Cola's second brand Pepsi Cola launched a marketing offensive, the slogan is "Pepsi Generation".

They positioned Pepsi Cola as a coke for young people, because Coca-Cola was considered to be the older generation of cola.

As Pepsi Cola pointed out, "your parents drink Coca-Cola, but who wants to drink the same thing with their parents?" "Pepsi Generation" is a very effective marketing strategy because it stands on the "opposite side" of the leading brand.

To a certain extent, Pepsi Cola sold more than Coca-Cola in supermarkets in the United States, but Coca-Cola was still the overall champion based on its strong position in fast food channels and restaurants.

Pepsi Cola has the term "Pepsi Generation" but does not use it as a slogan.

Pepsi Cola has shared 15 slogans: 1975 is for "young you"; 1978 is "enjoying Pepsi day"; 1980 is "catching the spirit of Pepsi"; 1983 is "drinking Pepsi now"; 1983 is "the next generation's choice"; "the next generation"; "the Pepsi: the new generation's choice"; the "yes" is "owning it"; it is "young, happy, drinking Pepsi"; "is the only thing"; "the next generation"; "the young mind, the young drink"; the "yes, this is the cola". Since 1975,

In fact, many brands have adopted Pepsi Cola's model. Whenever they have new CEO or find new advertising companies, their slogans are changed: the average advertising slogan of Pepsi Cola only lasts two years and two months; the average CEO of each company is two years and two months; the average advertising campaign of every company in the mainstream business magazine business week is only two years and six months.

Since 1975, BMW has only used the only slogan of "ultimate driving machine".

33 years ago, when the slogan of "ultimate driving machine" started to start, BMW was the eleventh European importing vehicle in the United States. Today it is the first brand.

33 years ago, Pepsi Cola was the second largest Cola Brand in the US market. Today, after changing 15 slogans, it is still the second largest brand, and is lagging behind the leading brand Coca-Cola (which is no longer leading Coca-Cola in supermarkets).

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The Enlightenment of Obama's campaign strategy

Returning to the topic of presidential election, Obama's campaign strategy has many inspirations for China, the United States and the world's enterprises. It is also a simple principle that we have emphasized for countless times over the years.

Simple

The American public needs the state to change the status quo, which is very obvious to any spectator. So why do talented politicians like Hilary and Mccain fail to consider this concept? According to our experience in the conference rooms of large enterprises around the world, the concept of "change" is too simple and obvious, so that it is difficult to sell it.

The management of enterprises is looking for the concept of "smart". Since money is spent, these people want to find a concept that they have never thought of before, and it is best to have a particularly creative concept.

Take the advertisement published in the latest issue of business week as an example:

Chicago Business Research Institute: the real moment has been successful.

Dalton Business School: high profile, big and dynamic.

CDW company: right technology, it works immediately.

Hitachi: start the future.

NEC company: innovation driving force.

Deutsche Bank: show passion.

SKF: the power of the knowledge industry.

There may be some meaningful slogans, some of which may be very inspiring, or describe the company's production line, but none of them can lead Obama to success like "change", because they are not simple enough.

Look at Lenovo's slogan: "new world, new association" is not simple and concrete at all.

The new world is a well-known fact that Lenovo is a computer company in China, and every computer user knows it.

New Lenovo, what is new Lenovo? Lenovo's computers are smaller, lighter, cheaper, more durable, more unique in design or what?

repeat

90% what is the problem with marketing? Companies want to "promote", but what they should do most is "positioning".

Obama is not advocacy to the public that he is the representative of change, because in today's environment, every country's top body politicians are manifests themselves as representatives of change.

What Obama does is to keep repeating the message of "change", so voters can relate this concept to Obama. In other words, he represents "change" in the minds of voters.

In a society of information overload, it is necessary to repeat this effect to achieve this effect. For a typical commodity brand, this may mean putting advertisements and huge advertising investment year after year.

Most companies have no money, no patience, or no vision like Obama. They jump from one concept to another, and pray for miracles to inject vitality into brands.

This is no longer effective today.

Such an approach is especially ineffective in politics, which will create a wavering and indecisive image, which is fatal to those trying to make a fortune in politics.

Now, the most effective way is to learn for decades like BMW: repeat, repeat and repeat.

In addition, the concept of emptiness is not acceptable. The concept of Hitachi is known as "starting the future", which can not produce any effect.

Effective slogans need simple and factual basis. What kind of future did Hitachi start? When you put Hitachi's name on all your products like Hitachi, it's hard to make money, because your brand doesn't mean anything.

Lock in

"If the battle fails, change the battlefield immediately."

This old theory of war is equally effective in the field of marketing.

By focusing on and publicizing "change", Obama successfully changed the political battleground, and let his opponents focus their main propaganda on what changes they can bring to the country, and the changes they bring and Obama's "pformation" are different, and he has locked in with "change".

In this way, all talk of "change" will drag Hilary and Mccain away from their core strengths: their record of participation in politics, their experience and their relationship with world leaders.

The American authoritative marketing magazine "Advertising Age" selected Obama as "2008 Marketing Master". I agree with this point. I can remind Chinese managers and marketers again to learn Obama's excellent marketing strategy.

The core of this strategy is very simple, and I have repeatedly stressed that it occupies a word in the minds of customers.

Ask yourself, what words can your brand possess in the minds of its customers?